00:00
00:00
View Profile Esn

65 Audio Reviews

37 w/ Responses

I've been listening to this on loop for about 15 minutes... it's kind of addictive! Nice job, neat rhythms and the melody is just interesting enough with a nice counterpoint.

BenTibbetts responds:

Thank you! Glad you enjoy it.

This is very pleasant to listen to. I quite like the odd harmonies and the interesting rhythmic syncopations. The loop-point is smooth as well.

Could you please post the chord progressions in a reply to this review? I'd work it out myself but I'm really busy working on some projects. It would be very much appreciated if you do find the time. :)

BenTibbetts responds:

Hi Esn. It's nice to hear from you. :)
I'm glad you liked the track.

"The Sarah Chimera" was part of a collection of *.OGG files released in January. I provided scores for each of the files in this collection on my website. You can visit http://bentibbetts.net/newcompositions/ogg1.26.13/score1-26.pdf and scroll down to the 17th page to see the entire score for this track, under the heading "Sara".

In summary, the progression goes like this (ignoring the inversion chords):
Db, F, A, C, A, F,
Db, F, A, C, Eb, C,
A, C, A, C,
A, C, Eb, F#, Eb, C,
A, C, A, C,
A, C, Eb, F#, A, C

The scream at the end made it for me

Refreshingly horrible. The going more and more out-of-tune as the song progressed was a nice added bonus.

Omnigon responds:

I see you've studied music theory.

Mine.

Funky!

It's been a while since I've come across a song that I'm happy to just leave on in the background while I do other things. This is a song like that. Its greatest strength resides in its funky rhythms and a bit of weirdness. It reminds me of the music for the videogame "Toejam and Earl 2". I give it 8/10 because it is a bit repetitive for me; you have each passage repeat 2-4 times in a row, which is ok for this style. However, I think it would have better if the second time, there had been some one different thing to make things more interesting (i.e. another melody layered on top, maybe leading into the style of the next section).

Epic loop

You kept it interesting throughout - each new iteration of the theme had something uniquely different going on. The mood was suitably dramatic, and it was very action-y while at the same time not being lazy musically. I also especially love how natural and seamless the transition from the end of the piece to the beginning is.

Fairly good

It's a fairly good song that is well-played. The sound quality is a little muddy, so that's one area to improve if possible (though I've heard a lot worse). The first and second theme are pretty well developed and along with the playing kept me somewhat interested. It wasn't genius, but it was a nice piece. I did wish for some more variety and deviation from the norm.

Image of 2nd theme (2 mins in): a sparrow flying around.

PenguinSam responds:

Hmm...well, there was a LOT of peddle in the song....

Also, I didn't want too much variation from the norm in this piece, it was meant to be more on the relaxing and enjoyable side. And the second theme, YES that is exactly what I was going after!

I appreciate the review, thank you!

<PS>

This one's interesting

Same comments apply about the bad samples for the voices as before. It takes a lot of work for the listener to imagine the piece as it is "meant" to sound, and I think that a lot of people simply aren't willing to invest the required energy. They get angry at you for making them work and vote "0".

I think this movement is on the whole more interesting and more inventive than the first one. I liked the instrumentations and loved the interesting harmonies, particularly in the middle section. At the same time, it risked becoming a bit too repetitive at times, though it mostly had enough variety.

Joel-Marler responds:

Thanks - yeah, it is a bit repetitive, but i guess that's just the style I've developed. It's definately pretty different to your compositions, so I'm suprised you like it...but I'm not complaining :D

Aiii, the sound!

I'm finding it difficult to judge the piece overall, because the bad sound quality by far overshadows it. It must be the voice samples; it wasn't so bad in "Graves of Wales" where it was just orchestral instruments. But these voice samples are very poor and distracting, and frankly I think you should avoid using them in the future...

I did enjoy the last minute and a half or so, I know that much, but I'm not sure either way how I feel about the first part. It was hard to concentrate. There seemed to be some nice things, and also some not-so-nice things, but it's hard to be sure.

I voted a "4" to bring your score up to 2.36, because I think that the score it had was ridiculous. Don't let it get you down. But I think you should eventually start researching something to make your files sound better. Finale's Garritan Orchestra is pretty good (though not perfect). I wonder if there's anything like that for Sibelius?

Joel-Marler responds:

Maybe I should use a different composing programme, I seem to be getting alot of people telling me the quality isn't good - I think youre right about the bad quality of the voice samples, and the fact that they cant sing words is annoying...

I think it sounds good

I liked your melodies, harmonies and rhythms. It is a very enjoyable song to listen to. Sometimes I felt like it could have been more interesting if the left hand had been playing some off-rhythm stuff (it did start doing that at 1:05). But it's very nice as it is already.

rosemthornz responds:

Thanks for the tip about off-rhythm stuff, and thanks for the review!
(yay the first comment i've ever recieved!)

What's with the 3 minutes of silence at the end?

I'd suggest cutting that off and uploading an updated file...

Now, then, on to my review... this is a well-constructed composition. Some thoughts from while I was listening:
-Who the heck is going to be able to play that piano part? That just seems insane to me!..
-The piano is too quiet compared to the rest of the band (by the way, what is the instrumentation?)
-Nice playing with rhythms there - piano seemingly in one meter, the rest on another
-1:30 is pretty inventive. Great use of marimba
-As 1:40 and onward rolls around, it seems to me that those high instruments playing the three repeated notes should be playing different notes already (but with the same rhythm). The underlying harmony has changed, and it's beginning to feel weird.
-1:52, ok, back to theme 1 for a bit...
-2:17, ah, now this is a more interesting theme 2. Nice use of xylophone & marimba to create interesting texture. They go really well with the low brass
-back to theme 1 & a conclusion. Ok, that works. Pretty good ending.

I wouldn't say it sounds circusy, but it is pretty interesting. I especially loved the textures you had in places. It would, of course, sound a lot better if the sounds weren't so obviously MIDI-sounding. There are a few people on Newgrounds who judge based on the underlying composition (I try to, because I have the same problem myself - I don't really know how to work with electronic sound), but most people will base their judgement heavily on how rich and deep-sounding your sound file is. Hence why some really boring and derivative New-Agey stuff that nevertheless has a nice sound gets high scores. And I can't really give much advice either; as I said, I have the same problem (I use Finale 2007, which does have some good audio tools in addition to the scorewriting part of the program, but I have no idea how to fully use them. So my pieces also don't sound as good as they could. And there are a number that I haven't uploaded yet because I'm not happy with how Finale's making them sound).

Joel-Marler responds:

Yeah, the 3 minutes of silence at the end is pretty annoying...i cant figure out how to get rid of it since my composing program (sibelius) adds bars of silence to the end of all my pieces automatically. I cant remember what instruments it uses - although i know xylophones and bass trombones are in there. Thanks for the feedback, that was really useful...and yeah, the piano probably is impossible to play. I definately couldn't do it.

Feel free to PM me if you want to see the scores to any of my music.

Male

Student

Toronto, ON

Joined on 4/6/04

Level:
26
Exp Points:
7,314 / 7,510
Exp Rank:
5,416
Vote Power:
6.78 votes
Art Scouts
10+
Rank:
Civilian
Global Rank:
77,908
Blams:
40
Saves:
40
B/P Bonus:
0%
Whistle:
Silver